Posted by on Nov 29, 2010 in Social Media | 10 comments

Since the dawn of social media way back in the mists of history, people have been trying to figure out how to accurately gauge the impact and ROI of their tweeting, Facebooking, and LinkedIn efforts. While there is no perfect tool, many social media specialists, including those of us here at Roundpeg, think that Klout is the best tool currently on the market. Lorraine has talked on this blog before about Klout, but in the past few days, it’s undergone some radical changes.

Some people try to measure social media efficacy with pure number of followers or friends. That raw number is fairly unhelpful.  For example: what if you have many followers who ignore every word you say? Or what if they’re all spam bots? Instead, Klout measures how influential you are among your followers, tracking a variety of statistics including unique @ senders, unique retweeters, your true reach (how many people act on your content), and your number of retweets, among others.

There have been several blog posts lately criticizing Klout, and they all have good points. However, I find Klout is a great tool.  It encourages me to keep reaching out to people and build new relationships. Sure, some people don’t need the carrot of an ever-increasing number dangling in front of them to quantify their efforts, but for me, it’s a solid kick in the pants to keep me on track: I haven’t been getting retweets, I better create better content; I haven’t been getting @ replies, I better reach out more. Klout is just the prodding I need to avoid complacency and keep climbing to the top.

So what’s your view on Klout? Love it or loathe it?

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  • http://www.harechevy.com Chris Theisen

    Thanks for sharing how you use and view Klout. When used in the manner you describe I think it holds value, so long as you change methods and interactions to better engage with your audience (as you stated) I see lots of people quoting their number like its the online bible and those are the people I take issue with. Used as you state in the post I think it can hold value. You are also right that they (and Twitalyzer) are the best in the game right now.

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  • http://www.roundpeg.biz Allison

    Chris,

    You’re absolutely right. Using Klout as a feather in your cap is an ultimately pointless exercise in ego stroking, and is superficial and fleeting at best, and gives a false sense of accomplishment at worst. At Roundpeg, we always try to steer our clients away from the instant gratification that metrics can give, and look at it over the long haul.

    Thanks for your thoughts–I know that we differ a bit on our opinion of Klout, but I think that ultimately, we both want to provide as much value to our followers as possible.

  • http://www.muhammadyasin.com Muhammad Yasin

    I’m going to raise my hand and admit to being one of those negative bloggers. However, we can absolutely agree that the in depth analytics are extremely useful. While I try not to look at my score much, I definitally keep an eye on the retweet ratios, folower ratios, etc.

    Also, I really do believe that Klout has a bright future ahead of them.

    Great post :)

  • http://www.roundpeg.biz Allison

    Muhammad,

    You make a crucial point–the raw Klout score is definitely not the most useful part of the tool. It’s the components that make up the Klout score that really give you the best information!

  • http://www.slaughterdevelopment.com/ Robby Slaughter

    It’s clear you only wrote this post to improve your Klout score. :-)

    I think what’s most interesting is that you are using your Klout score as a way to motivate yourself to be more engaging. That seems a little backward to me, because whenever one tries to game an algorithm, they become *less* engaging.

    Even though Allison KNOWS it’s coming, here’s a reference to a blog post I wrote that discusses the issue of measurement.

  • http://www.roundpeg.biz Allison

    Oh, Robbie. You always manage to see the worst in things. I never considered it “gaming” the algorithm–I’m not trying to cheat or outsmart it any way, but rather using the data that it gives me to step up my social media approach. It helps me to identify areas of weakness, and where I can improve. Whether it makes me more “engaging” or not is, of course, a determination to be made by my followers.

  • http://indysm.org Chuck Gose

    I love it when intelligent people can debate about a subject matter and keep it civil. (And I’m not even mentioning the K word. The last time I did, my K word score took a hit.) :-)

  • http://www.theaaroncraig.com/blog Aaron Craig

    Good post! Though we have criticized Klout on my blog, we have also applauded its future plans to progress. Some of the new initiatives that Klout is releasing will be very beneficial. I check it from time-to-time, but right now I don’t feel it tells me enough of how I should change my tweeting habits. I think that future changes of Klout will eventually lead it’s way to be one of the better social media measurement tools, especially with the integration of LinkedIn and geo-location sites. But until that time comes, I prefer to use other analytical tools.

    Great post!

  • http://www.theaaroncraig.com/blog Aaron Craig

    Oh…. and like Muhammad and Chris, I raise my hand as a guilty party for hating on Klout, but with that said, I think Klout has a great future ahead. And props to Klout CEO. He was so open in his interview with Muhammad and even commented on Muhammad’s blog post. Seems like a great guy.

    BTW, thanks for the link juice!

  • http://www.roundpeg.biz Lorraine

    Aaron,
    I have been really impressed, when I have sent questions about the tool to their support line, and get real answers, not automated links to their FAQ.

    I like Klout as a starting point for conversations with clients about their Twitter activities. Especially for some of our clients who are just putting their toe in the water, Klout gives them a way to compare various users, and evaluate the impact of their activities. I don’t want them to get lost in the numbers, but it is useful as we monitor their activity and coach them on how to become better at social media interaction.

    .